


Hiding from the World

by Lucky_Cassandra



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Gen, Injury Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-02 22:10:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17272064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucky_Cassandra/pseuds/Lucky_Cassandra
Summary: Link has bought and furnished a house in Hateno, but only uses it when he needs a place to hide and recover.





	Hiding from the World

Karson sat down heavily on the grass under their usual tree, Bolson sitting across the fire from him. The day's work had been tiring but satisfying, and some rest out here in the fresh air before heading home was just what he needed.

He turned to look at the house on the hill, standing locked and empty as it usually did. Karson often wondered at that, the young man named Link had bought and furnished the house but never seemed to spend time there. It was a lovely spot, and Link had payed for Karson and Bolson to fit it up with chairs, a large table, weapon racks, a comfortable bed, even a garden and lights, but they hardly ever saw him stay more than a few hours.

Not that he never came back. They had seen Link many times, usually stumbling up the hill in the evening, looking exhausted and pale, only to find him already gone in the morning. Sometimes he would come and sit around the fire with them for a little while, occasionally cooking something he immediately offered to share with them, but more often he would just give them a small wave and make straight for the door, disappearing inside without a word. He often looked beaten up and in pain, walking stiffly, holding an arm to his side or sporting cuts and bruises on his face. Karson would have liked to help him, but the worse Link looked, the less he seemed to want to draw their attention.

Bolson and Karson talked about him, occasionally. Bolson had noticed everything Karson had, and understood it just as little. Link never spoke about himself, never offered information about where he had been and what he had been doing, giving only vague answers when they asked about a new bruise or wound. They understood he was travelling all over Hyrule, because he sometimes came back wearing strange and exotic clothing and gear that was definitely unnecessary in the mild climate of Necluda. Another funny thing is that Link always seemed to appear out of nowhere, they hardly ever saw him on the road.

He definitely had been to Akkala, many times, and whenever Karson heard from Hudson, Hudson would tell about all the help Link was giving him with Tarrey Town. That was another thing. Link would never talk about himself or ask for anything, but he always helped anyone who asked him. He had cleared out monsters from Hateno beach, he kept bringing Hudson the unreasonable amount of wood he asked for, as well as convincing people to move out to Tarrey Town at Hudson's request. He also made time to play with children, showing Nebb the weapons he wanted to see, and to help Manny woo a girl.

Who was this man? What was he doing? He couldn't be travelling all over the place just to bring people crickets, mushrooms and spices. That was definitely _not_ how he got wounded so often. And then there was the timing of his appearence and all the strange things that were rumored to be happening. Mysterious towers rising out of the ground, ancient rock buildings which had sat there for centuries lighting up for no apparent reason, monsters appearing and reappearing everywhere, strange blue flames dancing in lanterns on the hills in the night, not to mention the blood red moon than shone from time to time. Were those events somehow connected to him?

Bolson's voice broke through Karson's thoughts. "I see you are thinking about our young mysterious friend again," Bolson said. "I know what goes through your mind when you look up at the house like that."

Karson shook his head. "He always looks so _alone_ , chief. He's doing something, and even though he tries to hide it, sometimes it looks as though he feels the weight of the world on his shoulders."

"Did you ever think that may be exactly it?" Bolson's eyes were shrewd in the darkening air. "You know the legends as well as I do."

Karson looked up, startled. Surely Bolson didn't mean to suggest...

"You've said yourself he obviously travels all over Hyrule," Bolson continued. "He is clearly a fighter, he knows his way with weapons. He is getting wounded often, and someone _that_ skilled getting _that_ hurt suggests he is fighting _a lot_ , and big stuff. Also, strange things started happening around the time he appeared, magic flowing through the land, buildings lighting up, towers growing like mushrooms, ancient machines powering up, legends coming back to life."

Karson couldn't process what Bolson was saying. They all knew the kingdom of Hyrule was said to have fallen to some kind of malice and evil a hundred years back, but if one avoided Hyrule field and a couple of other places it wasn't too bad... The stories he heard around the campfire when he was a child explained that this was because the golden princess, wielding Hylia's own power, was keeping evil confined in the castle, waiting for the hero with the magic sword to save her. But surely Bolson was not suggesting... these were fairy tales! 

"Bolson, you can't seriously believe..." Karson began. But it did make an odd sort of sense, if one imagined to be living inside a child's storybook. 

His confused thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a noise on the other side of the bridge. Karson and Bolson turned to look that way, and saw the very young man they had been just talking about. 

But something was wrong. 

They could see even from a distance he was having trouble walking, leaning heavily on some kind of long stick. He seemed to be barely able to stay upright. Karson and Bolson were on their feet and running towards Link before he could take another faltering step. They reached him just as he stumbled and caught him by the shoulders. The spear he had been leaning on clattered to the ground. 

"Link!" Bolson cried. "What happened to you?" 

Up close he was a mess. Blood was dripping from several wounds on his arms, side and shoulders, his left leg seemed to be covered in burns, the trouser leg blackened and torn. He had a deep cut over one eye, and a dark bruise on his cheekbone. His breathing was laboured and shallow as if painful, and his eyes were half-closed and unfocused. He seemed only barely conscious. 

"Link, can you hear me?" Bolson said again. The only answer he got was a low, pained moan. "Quick, Karson, let's get him inside." 

With all the gear he was carrying, getting Link across the bridge and into his house was heavy work. Once inside the door, Bolson sat Link down in a chair, holding him upright while Karson started taking his gear off. How could one person carry so much stuff? 

"Link," Bolson tried again, holding Link by the shoulders, "can you hear me? We helped you home, now we are going to take care of you, okay? Don't worry, you are safe now." 

At his words Link seemed to relax a little, and then seemed to loose consciousness completely, going limp in Bolson's arms. 

Karson was speechless. "What on earth happened to him?" he asked in a whisper. 

"No time for questions, now. Help me, we have to get him to the bed and check his wounds, see how bad the bleeding is," Bolson said. "We will need bandages and water, then he will need elixirs and some food, if we manage it." 

With his gear off, it was easy to get Link up the stair and on the bed. Karson and Bolson gently stripped his tunic and trousers off to examine the wounds. Luckily, the cuts on his arms and side were all rather shallow, the worst one on his shoulder. He had a number of bruises on his ribcage which hinted at cracked ribs, but nothing broken or out of place. The burn on his leg was nasty-looking, but Bolson poured on it a silvery liquid from a small flask and it looked a lot better immediately. 

"What was that?" Karson asked him. 

"I built this house piece by piece. I know where he keeps his potions and first aid supplies," Bolson answered. "That's how I knew how often he was getting hurt." 

Once Link's wounds were mostly clean and bandaged, Bolson and Karson left him to rest on his bed and moved downstairs to sit at the kitchen table, exhausted. 

"What the..." Karson began, but didn't know how to continue. 

Bolson's smile was small and tired. "Are you still so sure he can't be the hero of the legend? Did you see all the scars he bears? If he had gotten here just a few minutes later we wouldn't have seen him. I imagine he would have dragged himself to the house by sheer force of will and would have passed out on the floor, waking to clear up the mess before dawn and then moving on again. I suspect that has happened before. 

"I can't believe that, if he had been this beat up we would have noticed," Karson said, incredulous. 

"Like I said, did you take a good look at some of those scars? The elixirs he keeps stored away are awfully good. If we manage to make him take a few sips, tomorrow morning he won't look half as bad," Bolson answered. "Speaking of which, step outside and make some soup. We better try to get some food in him." 

A few hours later, Link was definitely looking a little better. He had never fully regained consciousness, but enough to take some soup and a restorative elixir. Now he just seemed to be sleeping and not at death's door, even if still pale. Bolson and Karson were sitting at the table downstairs again. Karson was still processing what had happened. 

"I... still can't believe it," Karson mused out loud. "He does this, whatever it is he does, alone, never asks for help, hiding everything from everyone. If he really is on... a mission, a quest, as you say, he is doing it for all of us. He should say something, someone could help him." 

"If he is who I think he is, he might be right to hide. There are even more dangers he would be exposed to if the truth got around, if word got around the hero of the legends had a house in Hateno village," Bolson said. "He wouldn't be able to hide back here even for the few hours he manages now." 

"Are you still talking about the legends and fireside stories? The Yiga clan and things like that?" Karson asked. 

Bolson nodded. "But I think that is not the reason he hides from the world," he said. "I think he does it not to pull anyone else into the mess he is in." He was silent and thoughtful for a while, then turned to look out the window. 

"Dawn is not far off," Bolson said. "I imagine he will wake soon." 

Karson nodded. If he had been that hurt he would have slept for a week, but he thought Bolson was right. Link would be awake soon. "Do you think he realised we were helping him?" Karson asked. 

Bolson snickered. "He was too far gone. But he will realise what happened the moment he opens his eyes. 

"He never wanted our help," Karson said, hesitatingly. "Maybe we should... step outside. Give him space, and the chance to... ignore what we did if he wants to." 

Bolson looked at him in silence for a long moment. "Yes, that might be a good idea. We can wait outside." 

They walked back to the dying cooking fire, stirred it up to stay warm and settled to wait for dawn. 

*** 

Link opened his eyes just as the sun came above the horizon. He realised immediately he was in his own bed in Hateno village, but he had no memory of getting there. He remembered getting as far as the Myahm Agana shrine, but not much after that. He was quite weak and beat up, he imagined he had made it up here on instinct, as had happened before. 

He raised a hand to rub his face and froze. His arm was bandaged, and not like he would have done it himself. The bandage was positioned rather inexpertly, if neatly and carefully. He raised himself on one elbow and turned to his nightstand, to find a bowl half full of soup, with a spoon sitting inside it. He didn't bother with a spoon for soup when he was alone, it looked as if... someone had spoon fed him. 

_Bolson_ , he thought as he dropped heavily down on the pillow again, _and Karson._

It was not yet full night when he got back. Link realised they must have still been sitting under their usual tree. They must have seen him and helped him. He covered his face with his hands. He hadn't wanted them to see him like this, wounded, weak, helpless. It was putting a burden on them, one that was supposed to be only his to bear. He remembered when he had just woken up in the Shrine of Resurrection and had started on his journey, he hadn't felt this responsability as keenly as he did now. He hasn't felt this need to bear this burden alone. But as he remembered more and more of his previous self he also remembered why he was always stoic and closed off. 

That was the best part of having a house, having a place to go back to when he needed to hide and rest for a few hours. A place he could crash safely without anyone being the wiser, without being in anybody's way. That was why he normally came back in the dead of the night and left at dawn, but the night before he must have miscalculated. Not that he had come back often in such bad shape, but yesterday had been... difficult. 

Link sighed and stood up slowly, assessing the state of his wounds. He noticed two empty elixir bottles on the nightstand. The restorative elixir had done it's work, he felt a lot better. The other one was... a fireproof elixir? Link quickly checked his leg and found the burn mostly healed. Huh. He had never thought to use the elixir like that. It had worked like a treat, though. He had to remember that. He pulled on some fresh clothes and walked downstairs, then straight out the door. He had a feeling Bolson and Karson would be there. 

They were. 

They were sitting in their usual places, but their postures were a bit stiffer than usual. They were both a bit pale, with shadows under their eyes. _Oh goddess,_ had they stayed with him through the night? Shame and guilt burned hot and bitter in Link's throat. They were hard working men, a night awake was sure to take its toll. 

Link walked up to them and stood a few feet away from the fire. Bolson and Karson were both trying to keep their faces blank, at least as blank as two genuine and open-hearted people like them could manage. Link could see their worry clear as day. 

"Thank you," he said without preamble. "I am sorry you had to see that, but I am very grateful for your help. I am also sorry you had to stay awake all night. Work will be rough for you today." 

Their facades broke as one. "Link, how are you feeling?" Bolson asked softly. "You got me scared for a minute there." 

Link smiled wearily. "I am fine, thanks to you two. I would not have been in good enough shape to leave this soon if it hadn't been for your help." 

"Leave?" Karson asked, outraged. "You were in a bad way just a few hours ago, you were bleeding, barely conscious, you didn't even realise we were there!" He sighed and seemed to deflate. "Link, what happened to you? What are you doing?" 

Link shrugged dismissively. "Just ran into a couple of monsters. They were better equipped than most." 

That wasn't the whole truth, not by a long shot, but he couldn't tell them. He couldn't tell them he had been scouting Hyrule castle, again, because even though he knew he was not ready to take Ganon (and the state he had been in the night before confirmed he was not ready), that place just called to him. The idea that the princess, that _Zelda_ was in there somewhere,  fighting this battle alone, was driving him slowly insane. So he kept going back, searching every inch he could reach, looking for things that might help him remember his past, or scouting for information that would help him when he was finally ready to face Ganon, like precise knowledge of the layout of the walls, towers, rooms and walkways. 

Link couldn't tell them of the guardians on the walls, of the large lynels inside the towers, the moblins in the dining hall, the lizalfos in the lower levels, and the malice, the malice everywhere. 

Most of all, Link couldn't tell them of his ultimate goal. He couldn't tell them he was the one turning the divine beasts on Hyrule castle, that he was the reason those red beams were appearing in the sky. He couldn't even start explaining how one day, soon, he would disappear into the castle and fight the black and red cloud that pulsed and swirled there. How could he make them look any more horrified than they already were? How could he burden them with this knowledge? It was his burden, his duty. Only his. 

And he definitely couldn't tell them that he had to leave right away because time was precious. Because the sooner he did everything he had to, the quicker he could get Zelda out of there. Link felt sick at the thought of what she was enduring, alone, fighting, surrounded by malice and evil and darkness. She had already been there for _a century _. How much more could she withstand?__

____

____

Karson was speaking again. "But leave again? Aren't you going to rest and recover a bit first?" 

Link had to fight to keep his face blank from the wave of emotion that swept over him at the concern in Karson's voice, the way he was almost pleading with Link to take a break. This was another reason he couldn't let anyone too close. As long as his burdens were only his, he could hide them even from himself, when they became too much. He could just get back up and keep walking without thinking about his wounds, his exhaustion, his pain. But the worry and pain on Bolson's and Karson's face, worried and pained for _him_ , just made everything worse. 

"I appreciate your concern, but I assure you I am fine, in large part thanks to the help you have already given me," Link said, working to keep his voice even and controlled. "I must leave as soon as I can, I have some urgent things to do." He hated the hurt look that crossed Karson's face. Bolson was looking at Link with a calculating look, as if he could see right through Link to his real motives, but Karson just saw the way Link was pushing them away. 

One day, Link thought, one day he would come back and be the friend Karson deserved. But today was not that day. 

"Thanks again for your help," Link said, then gave a small nod in farewell and turned to walk back to the house. He took only one step and stopped again. He couldn't just leave them like this after everything they had done for him, he couldn't be so cold and detached. Maybe he would have managed one hundred years ago, but not now. 

Link took a deep breath, noting the stabbing pain in his ribs. _Cracked again,_ he thought. He then turned back to his friends. 

"Please," he said softly, "allow me to make breakfast for you. A small, inadequate gesture after all you have done, but I hope you will accept." 


End file.
